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Contact chief executive Steve Barrett said the 354MW TCC station was scheduled to be taken out of service for essential maintenance yesterday evening and to remain out for at least a month.
Contact, which bought the TCC plant from NGC Holdings for $NZ500 million, said it would rely on the 23-year-old, gas-fired 400MW New Plymouth station, running all three available units, as well as drawing down water from the South Island Lake Hawea to run the Clutha hydro system, to compensate for the loss of production from TCC.
"While the timing of the TCC outage is less than ideal, it is not possible to defer it," said Barrett, adding that work carried out would ensure the plant's reliable functioning during the coming critical winter months.
